The HERO Project
by Elsanna Potato Corner
Summary: The former Queen of Arendelle finds her far-flung past staring back at her with Annabelle, the latest recruit for the HERO Project. It's said she can defeat her foes with only one punch, and it's taken less than that for Annabelle to knock Elsa off her feet. But could this girl who looks so much like her dead sister really be her soulmate? (Elsanna, soulmate AU, superhero AU)


**Prompt:** In this world, people age normally until they reach age 21. From there, they won't resume aging again until they meet their soulmate. Elsa has yet to find hers (if she even has one) and watches as everyone she loves (her sister Anna, most of all) grow old and die with their soulmates.

Fast-forward to modern times - Elsa is now part of an organization who helps people with powers, and keeps them out of trouble. A newbie joins the organization, with little control over her ridiculously super strength. Elsa is shocked to meet the new member, whose name and appearance are shockingly similar to her long dead sister, and she's even more shocked when, after almost two hundred years, Elsa starts aging after their meeting.

 **EDIT (12/11/15):** Fixed the prompt summary. Sorry for the confusion.

* * *

 **The HERO Project**

 **Chapter 1:** _One Punch to the Heart_

* * *

There was a strangeness that came with simultaneously being one of the oldest members of an organization, and one of the youngest _looking._ Authority, in a group the size of the HERO project, was a tricky game, and one Elsa could play to her advantage as long as she paid attention. It was also one that could have her winding up fetching coffee for a rude, stupid, is-handsome-and-he-knows-it-well, middle man, whose sideburns reminded her of an old enemy.

Thus, cup of tea in hand and heels clacking down the hallways of the interview wing, Elsa was in a bad, bad mood for welcoming newbies into the fold. She'd enjoyed, with a wicked twist of her lips, taking the idiot to task for mistaking her for a fetcher, and watching him slink away when he realized he'd insulted a _very high_ higher up. But it wasn't enough to soothe her nerves. Still, authority also came with responsibility, and even after all these years she took it seriously enough to glance through the newbie's folder to prepare herself for the spiel she was about to give.

"Annabelle Quinn, nineteen, college student from America - super strength?" Elsa muttered, her brow furrowing as her gait slowed to a halt in front of room nine.

There was no picture to go with the file, just a tiny blurb stating hair color as 'strawberry' and eye color as 'teal'. It made Elsa raise an eyebrow slightly, a memory of her dead sister flashing briefly before her, back in the days before her red strands faded to white and those eyes the color of the ocean became veiled behind filmy cataracts. Elsa felt a smile tug at her lips, faint and more sad and nostalgic than happy. That had been so long ago now and it was getting harder and harder to remember the little things about her sister the more time passed.

She shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts. Now was not the time to be taking a trek down memory lane. Especially when she still had a newbie to meet and evaluate.

She double checked the information on the folder, rolled her shoulders back and put on her best blank expression before rapping hard on the door of the dorm room the girl-"Annabelle"- was assigned to.

There was a crashing noise, followed by a thud and a series of loud cursing that steadily got louder the closer the occupant of the room got to the door, before the wood was tossed open violently with a bang that shook the foundation of the building. The girl was beaming sheepishly at her. "Hehe, sorry about that. I- uh, can't really, ya'know...control that." Her voice, sweet as honey, had a subtle accent that Elsa couldn't quite place.

Elsa couldn't even reply, struck speechless as she stared at the girl standing before her who looked like an exact replica of the Anna she lost so long ago.

Elsa just stood there, while Anna-

 _Annabelle._

Anna-belle stood in a crouched, embarrassed manner in front of her. She wouldn't move, she couldn't move. Her feet were glued to the floor, posture stiff and unchanging, nothing under her control any longer.; she wasn't even sure she was breathing. She was lightheaded, and at the same time her whole body felt like lead.

Anna…-belle was talking to her now, her mouth moving, forming syllables she couldn't hear. All she could hear was the steady buzzing in her ears, as memory after memory flooded back to her with unrelenting force. Anna-belle's eyebrows furrowed in concern, and started to mouth more words, each one making the buzzing louder than the last.

It was happening again. All of it. Elsa knew this feeling well; she was well acquainted with it for hundreds of years. The one of grief, guilt, nostalgia and pure sorrow.

Only this time it was much, much worse.

Because she could physically _see_ Anna. _She was there, solid and alive, in front of her. Breathing, moving, talking._

 _Yelling._

And if she found out that it had been a dream, it would kill her.

This was too much, too much for her. She couldn't handle it, wouldn't handle it.

The walls were moving.

Her legs were moving.

She was running.

Elsa swallowed, and the ringing in her ears faded. She blinked away the wetness that had pooled in the corner of her eyes, trying to settle herself.

"Miss?"

The voice was what dragged her out of her memories even as they were bearing down at her. It was different, huskier, soft and hesitant in a blissfully unfamiliar way. Elsa allowed herself to look at _Annabelle_ again, noting the differences - subtle as they were - from her imperfect visions of the past. Before, she'd seen a copy of her sister squatting in front of her, but now that the girl stood and hesitantly flailed about trying to comfort her, Elsa knew they weren't the same woman - that this wasn't the one that she'd seen grow old and pass on.

* * *

 **The kingdom of Arendelle, Norway. 1849.**

" _Are you sure you don't want to come along with me and Kristoff?"_

 _Elsa looked up from her papers, the quill in her hand ceasing its writing as she gazed into a pair of concerned teal eyes. Her lips curled into a tired smile. "I'm sure you'll both be fine without me. I can't say the same for the kingdom, unfortunately."_

 _Her sister puffed out her freckled cheeks, clearly displeased with the blonde's answer. "You're_ the queen _-surely you can't...I don't know, tell people to give you a break for one day?"_

" _If only it were that simple, Anna," Elsa said as she set her quill back in its inkwell, chuckling softly. Her smile grew; some of the tiredness ebbing away. "Cherish him, will you? Not everyone can find their soulmate so easily."_

" _I'd rather cherish_ both of you _. Preferably at the same time," the princess huffed, placing her hands on her hips as she pouted. "I won't be around forever, you know."_

 _Elsa's smile faltered at that, and the tiredness returned. "Very few can live forever, Anna. And I'm afraid neither of us fall under that category."_

" _I wouldn't want you to, anyway," Anna mumbled, averting her gaze. "Forever sounds lonely."_

* * *

 **Belden, Norway. 2015.**

They'd somehow gotten seated, Elsa on one side of the table, rustling through her papers in an attempt to bring about some semblance of calm collectedness, Annabelle fidgeting on the other side with her hands securely in her lap.

"Sorry again," the girl began, bringing Elsa's attention to her (as much as Elsa had been avoiding doing so), "about the door." They both looked. The wood was splintered where Annabelle had banged into it. Elsa gave her a curt smile and nod.

"It's a non-issue, Miss Quinn. Normally we operate out of a building that's a bit more… sturdy. One that's built to withstand the abilities of powered individuals like yourself."

"Please," her desperation to make nice made her voice breathy, and Elsa squirmed at the sound of it. "Call me Anna."

Elsa swallowed. There was being welcoming, and then there was overstepping her own personal boundaries, and that was one of them. "Not Belle?" From Annabelle's grimace, Elsa deduced that wasn't an option. "Anne? Annie? Elle? Abbie?" With each shake of her charge's head, Elsa grew all the more anxious.

"I did report all of my aliases to the agent," Annabelle promised, and her earnestness squeezed Elsa's guts with guilt. "I swear. It's just Anna."

" _-I mean, I'm just Anna, so of course he-"_

" _Stop it, right now. You're not 'just Anna'. He-"_

Elsa looked up sharply, memories from a bygone age bubbling to the surface. "Stop it, right now," she found herself saying, echoing words nearly forgotten, "You're not 'just Anna'...understand?"

The girl's eyes had widened at the sudden passion in her voice, but the blonde couldn't help it. The walls she had so carefully built over the centuries were threatening to lower at the sight of that familiar face; words spilling out before she could suppress them.

"If...If you were 'just Anna', you wouldn't be applying here in the first place," Elsa awkwardly finished, feigning a cough into one fist.

Annabelle grinned sheepishly and nodded, leaning forward in her chair. "Thanks." A brief hesitation had Annabelle sitting back again and coughing into her own fist. "Erm, not to be disrespectful or anything, but, uh. What's your name?"

Elsa blinked. "Elsa. Elsa Arendelle."

"Ah… Elsa Arendelle." Annabelle paused, staring at the blonde. "Wait... Elsa…?"

She nodded. "Yes, I-"

"You're THE Elsa Arendelle?!" the girl shouted, and Elsa nearly flinched at the sudden outburst, unable to completely stifle the faint hope that this 'Anna' would somehow remember her. The blonde sighed. Really, what was she expecting? Someone that looked just like her sister…named similar to her sister, to even remember their time together? Well, to at least recognize her as her older sister, perhaps?

Elsa was delusional-Anna had been dead for well over a century.

Annabelle scooted over to Elsa again, heedless of her inner turmoil. "Whoa…this is the first time I've seen you in person…You're really gorgeous, you know?"

 _Hm?_

Elsa looked at her, strangely and embarrassed. "Excuse me?"

Realizing the bold words she'd blurted out, Annabelle quickly turned red, and Elsa could almost feel the heat radiating from her cheeks. "W-Wait, shit! S-Sorry, I-I didn't mean to say something so b-bold like that! We just met and you know how people get when they meet new people, especially when it's someone so famous. And really I look up to you a lot and I'm a big fan of your work and geez, to be near someone and just being inches away from you is like wow! B-But you know how it is, it's nervous talking! And I always blurt out something inappropriate at the worst possible time and…" She took a deep breath, and Elsa just couldn't hold in her laughter anymore. "I-I am so sorry for blurting that out and I'm stupid- Oh god, I ramble like this all the time. I'm so sorry. I'll stop now. Yep. Definitely. I should go."

Before Annabelle could even get up, Elsa made move to hold her arm, laughter finally erupting. The blonde hadn't smiled or laughed like this ever since… well, since her sister had been gone. She was always known to be the Snow Queen to her colleagues and her servants way back when she was still Queen. It'd be a surprise-no, it'd be the strangest thing for them, seeing how Elsa was looking so cheerful after some small talk with Annabelle and a huge ramble.

"W-Wait, hold on, Anna. Sit down!" she said. Elsa definitely didn't expect the name to slip from her mouth so easily, so soon. Was she that desperate to keep hold of someone that looked just like her little sister? Was she that desperate that after all these years…she just needed to hang on to something that would give her the happiness she needed? Was she that desperate…to _use_ someone to find that happiness, just because that person looked just like the girl she loved so dearly?

Annabelle gulped, cheeks still flaming with embarrassment. She sat down, clearing her throat. "S-Sorry. That was…it was totally uncalled for, I know."

"No, no," Elsa sighed, bits of laughter still spilling from her lips. "I find it quite funny."

"My nervousness?"

"Your rambling. It's cute." Because it'd always remind her of the rambling her little sister used to do...

Annabelle grinned tightly. "T-Thanks, I guess. I mean, really, I meant what I said. Your gorgeousness, I mean."

"You're not so bad-looking, either."

This was not really an appropriate topic of conversation, especially for someone of Elsa's rank, but she couldn't really help it. The smile that lit up Annabelle's face was achingly familiar even with the differences in their looks. The smattering of freckles on her cheeks, for instance, was far heavier than that of Elsa's sister, and she wondered how the pattern reflected on the rest of Annabelle's body before shaking her mind from the thought. That was _definitely_ an inappropriate line of thinking, although she hadn't meant it to sound sexual even in her head. Her hair, although the styling was somewhat similar in the twin braids she wore loosely, was shorter than Anna's, and of a darker shade, so that it was a true red rather than a strawberry blonde. Annabelle was shorter, too, and far more muscular, although Elsa surmised that was because of her powers.

Cutting off another tirade of embarrassed yammering with a minute shift of her body and a tight smile, Elsa reined in her own musing and returned to the task at hand. "Don't worry, Annabelle." Annabelle's pout at the use of her full name didn't phase Elsa, or at least she didn't let on that it phased her. "We're even. You weren't out of line, or overly familiar," which was a lie, but Elsa was ageless, not inhuman. She'd indulge just this once in one hundred and fifty years or so of stalwart morality. "And you didn't offend me. Let's move on, shall we?"

Annabelle nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"First let's talk about you," Elsa said, shifting in her seat again to seem more relaxed and shake Annabelle out of her nervousness. It didn't help that she seemed to know about Elsa, although even outside of the organization she was well known for her age. As one of the oldest people in the world who had yet to find her soulmate, she was practically a celebrity, although she tried to do things more newsworthy than just existing. Much of her life outside of the HERO project was steeped in her philanthropy work and little else. That wasn't much of an ice breaker for someone looking to join up with the organization she'd helped to found, especially one as nervous as Annabelle. "You're a college student in the Americas?"

Annabelle seemed surprised, and Elsa had expected that. Most of the newbies that came to the org expected to be questioned about their powers first, and not their livelihood.

"North America, yeah. And Canada, actually," the girl answered, reaching a hand up to tuck a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear-it took all of Elsa's strength not to flinch-as she smiled nervously. "Though I do go to school in the states, so…"

"I certainly hope their absurd tuition rates are worth your field of study," the blonde said, arching a delicate eyebrow as she mustered a faint smile.

Annabelle laughed a little. "Eh, not really. I'm an Art Major and I'm not even all that good at it." She waved her hand dismissively at her own words, cheeks turning the faintest bit pink. "But the courses are pretty good and I do learn quite a bit so it's really not as bad as it could be. The prices really are much too outrageous though."

That nervous smile stretched just a little bit wider and looked a tad bit more genuine on the girl's face, making Elsa's chest both tighten at just how painfully _familiar_ that expression was and feel lighter that she had successfully managed to break the ice and made that smile come out in the first place. The girl looked almost excited to be able to talk about her major, making it obvious how passionate she was about it.

"There just weren't very many art schools that caught my attention in Quebec so I decided to try in the States instead. Get out of the country for a change ya'know?"

"And how would you say your powers have affected your work?" Elsa asked gently, not expecting the grin that Annabelle threw her way.

"It helps me work with heavier materials than everybody else, that's for sure. And sometimes, when I'm frustrated, I can just punch metal until it's considered a sculpture. Those are usually the pieces I get the best grades on, because it," she cleared her throat and spoke the next words in a haughty accent, "exhibits the sharp, expressive lines of the neo-liberationist era through the frustration of the millennial entropic lethargy." Her voice changed back to her normal tone, a smirk teasing her lips. "Or at least that's what my professor wrote in his comments. I honestly don't know what half those words mean in the context of a sheet of metal that I laid my fist to after my boyfriend broke up with me."

Elsa couldn't help but chuckle.

"I'm certain we'll put that strength to good use," she said, inwardly glad to see that talking about her ex-boyfriend didn't seem to upset the girl. Anna would've certainly-

Those thoughts ground to a screeching halt, and Elsa coughed into her fist again.

"Just...bear in mind that you will have civilians to keep an eye on while you're on duty, and not all will be as...appreciative of your efforts."

" _...M-Monster! Monster!"_

Elsa smiled tightly. "Please, if such a time comes...pay them no heed."

"No biggie," Annabelle shrugged, grinning sheepishly. "I've had all kinds of crap slung at me for all kinds of reasons. I am who I am and I'm not gonna try and change for anybody but me, whether it's my powers, my dreams, or my sexuality." Clearing her throat, Annabelle sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Sorry, that got a little preachy."

Elsa's eyebrow raised before she could stop it, her interest piqued. "Your sexuality?"

The eyeroll Annabelle gave didn't seem directed at Elsa in particular, but still, Elsa bristled. "Yeah. You'd think in a world of people with superpowers, people would be a bit more open minded. But they still talk about how 'bisexuality isn't real' and I 'just need to choose', or whatever."

"Take it from someone who's lived long enough: bisexuality is _very_ much real," the blonde said, tone clipped as she leaned back in her seat, a frown forming on her face at the memories. "The close-mindedness of others knows no bounds, even more than a century later."

"About that…" Annabelle began, and Elsa's eyebrow arched further at the sheepish look her face had taken on, "I was wondering...what it was like? Back then, when you were...uh…"

"When I was queen?"

"O-Only if you're okay with sharing that!" Annabelle quickly amended, looking away as she tucked that strand of hair behind her ear again. The action sent yet another spike of pain and guilt down Elsa's spine, and the blonde swallowed down the bitterness that had settled upon her tongue.

"I believe...this interview is concluded," she said quietly after a moment, gathering the papers into a neat pile. She didn't miss the way Annabelle's face fell at that, either.

Elsa hesitated before tucking Annabelle's folder under her arm. "That particular conversation would best be continued over coffee, or perhaps a light lunch?" Her cheeks flushed at the pleased grin that lit up Annabelle's face. "At a later date, I'm afraid. I've got previous appointments today, but perhaps some time next week?"

Annabelle's enthusiastic nodding made Elsa smile, despite the complicated feelings roiling in her gut. "Oh yeah, definitely. That would be great. I mean, I don't really drink coffee, but yeah. I'm free and down for whatever."

"Lovely." How she avoided looking at Annabelle as they exited the interview room and parted ways, she didn't know, but it helped soothe the lump in her throat to stare at the floor and pretend she was someone else.

"Casper Christiansen will get you settled in the living quarters in our countryside facility, and further explain the program to you."

* * *

It was only later, during a quick trip to the bathroom to calm herself, that Elsa noticed the change. After decades upon decades of staring at her own face in the mirror every morning, she was very, _very_ familiar with every detail of it. Every blemish and imperfection.

Except for the hint of silver at the base of one strand of her hair.

At first, Elsa was certain it was a trick of the light despite the fact that this 'trick' had never happened before. However, upon closer inspection she could see that the once platinum strand indeed shone a pure white, and she could detect just the faintest hint of a wrinkle at the corner of her left eye. A wrinkle that was never there in all her years alive so far.

She almost collapsed in shock, her body going completely rigid in stunned disbelief. After over a century of never showing any signs...even after all of her searching... To actually see the hints now that she may have found her soulmate made her heart pound faster in her chest and her face flush.

 _But..._

Elsa looked around in a hurry, but no one else was in the bathroom except her. She gulped, feeling her heart pounding with excitement, or rather…fear. She was shaking terribly, lungs gasping for air. Elsa leaned against the sink, looking at herself in the mirror. Wrinkles…There were wrinkles…

The blonde touched her face, feeling every indent and bump. God this was amazing. She smiled widely, tears completely covering her vision without warning. _But…who?_

Her grin faded and quickly she turned to the door, opening it to find her eyes scrambling from left to right finding her soulmate. Her true love. Who'd she been speaking to for the day?!

She ran through what she'd done for the morning.

Got coffee from the a local coffee shop. Spoke to the barista, Kristoffer. Drove through the streets by herself. Let the doorman open the door for her. Kai, the security guard who bore a striking resemblance to her own Kai from long ago, asked her for her day. And then a bunch of overly muscular "heroes", who either tried to flirt with her, showed her their muscles and making exaggerating remarks, or flipped out when they were asked POLITELY, which to them were unacceptable because they were…well, they claimed to be certified heroes. Most of them lacked any abilities other than showing off how strong they were because of their guns-

She blinked. There was one hero. One who wasn't any of those disgusting creatures. _Anna…_

" _Annabelle!"_

* * *

 **Our writers for this round:** nopantsparade, pegacorn1210, pankite, The Wandering Quill, iamrottingbitch


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